The Travel Bug Has Bitten Again

Hey All,

Long time, no blog (which is not to say no travel... just no blog).  That, however, is about to change.  Tomorrow evening, Becky and I will fly off and go galavanting around Europe for nine days.

Here's our itinerary:

First (brief) stop: Iceland.
Next (brief) stop: London.
Next (actual destination) stop: Paris (for the weekend).
Followed by London (for three days).
And finally Iceland (for two days).

As you may imagine, that's a decent amount of currency to keep track of, so here are the status quo exchange rates:

1 pound = $1.6198
1 euro = $1.3014
1 Icelandic Krona = $.00815

All good information to have.  And beyond having looked up the exchange rates, I have done remarkably little to prepare for this trip.  Oh, don't get me wrong.  Flights are booked, trains are booked, connections are booked - but that all happened ages ago (I think my travel style falls into the punctuated equilibrium category).  I haven't packed (or checked on what the weather is like in these places in September).  I have a single food recommendation for Parisian chocolate gelato (and really, why would I want to eat anything else?), and I have not charged a single piece of electronic gadgetry.  I have not mentally prepared myself for the lack of Diet Coke and the disappointment that always accompanies Coca Cola Lite (yuck).  I guess that it hasn't really even hit me yet that I'll wake up on Friday (assuming that I fall asleep on the plane) and won't be going to work.  Weird.

I'd sit here and ponder that, but if I don't get my digitizing done now, how will I miss it later?

Over and out,

Catherine

And then there was one. 12/6/07

Well, I'm down to one final and one class. Yesterday I had a Jewish Life presentation, which I think went relatively well. There were a few questions that I didn't know the answers to at the end, but I was reporting on International Jewish Organizations that are assisting with the Jewish Revival in Former Soviet Countries. There's not actually a ton of literature on that. Oh well.

Then this morning I had an Economic Policy final. My first ever oral exam. That was stressful. I think it went pretty well, except that I mixed up common goods and public goods at the end. He didn't even ask me about my favorite method for internalizing technological effects (it's tradable rights to damage through certificates, by the way... it's the best one). He asked me about negotiations, which isn't as interesting and only works on a small scale anyway.

Later on today I have my Finance final. We shall see. So in and amongst all these lovely finals, I've had to do fun things like de-matriculate and whatnot. One of the things I have yet to do is have my house mother check my room so that I can go and get my deposit back. And guess what? After she checks my room, I can't live in it anymore. And guess what else? I leave Marburg at 7:00 AM on Monday, and she only works on the weekdays. I am effectively homeless (i.e. will be sleeping on Amanda's floor). Later on, when I do lists of things that I will and will not miss, reslife policies will be going on the latter. Oh well, off to study for finance.

Exchange Rates:

.67 Euro = $1

1 Euro = $1.46.

Sweet. I get to change my money tomorrow!

Good Morning Baltimore! 9/23/07

Well, the European Central Bank was so much fun. Security rivaled most of the major airports I've been in - they even made us take off any silver jewelry that we had. I set off the alarm, so I got to spend around 10 minutes trying to convince this nice lady that I had not acually sewed a bomb into my pants. It was great fun. Then we got refreshments and little pads of paper and pencils and an hour and a half lecture on monetary policy in the European Union. I thought that it was quite interesting. Most of the other people were clearly struggling to stay awake, but oh well. I liked it. Afterwards we had half an hour to wander back to the bus. So what did we do? Well, Nick, Erica and I took pictures with the giant Euro symbol (this thing was at least three stories tall) and then got lost on the way back to the bus. That was fairly predictable. We did eventually manage to find it though, so I suppose that all's well that ends well.

Yesterday I went to see my first German movie. Amanda and I saw an evening showing of Hairspray! It was so much fun - easily my favorite John Trovolta movie. The dubbing wasn't too bad, thankfully, but a lot of the sexual innuendo got lost in translation. The songs were kept in English, so that made the movie a lot easier to follow. Needless to say, I've listened to the entire soundtrack a whole bunch of times since last evening. And now I must research fun things to do in Milan next weekend!

Exchange Rates:

€1= $ 1.40
$1=€ .70
Man. This kinda stinks. Oh well.